Antique Double Beds between £0 and £0
An antique double bed is a full-size bedstead, a head and foot end joined by side rails or irons, made from the nineteenth century onward for the domestic bedroom.
What Are Antique Double Beds?
The listings quote widths: 4ft, 4ft 6", 5ft, occasionally 6ft or 7ft, with dealers using "small double", "king size" and "emperor" as shorthand. Beds are sold as ends plus side rails or irons, and sometimes as a headboard on its own. The archive splits first by material, then by style.
The bed you're most likely to meet is a Victorian brass and iron frame at 4ft or 4ft 6". Brass turns up in 268 titles and iron in 199, and Victorian leads the period words at 239. These were tube frames made in quantity, promoted partly on hygiene grounds, and the descriptive shorthand travels with them: "no end", "dip rail", "three hoop", "all brass".
After metal comes the French timber bed, at 229 titles the second big group, walnut more often than anything else, with carved, painted, upholstered and parcel gilt finishes and corbeille or lit bateau shapes. English mahogany and oak bedroom-suite beds form another quarter, many inlaid, many Edwardian. Art Deco walnut and maple frames of the 1920s and 30s account for about a tenth.
Dating is mostly by era rather than year. The dealer dated field runs 1800 to 1940, with 542 of 973 listings carrying a clean year; Victorian and 19th Century together cover 277 and should be read as a span of decades. A small run of oak four-posters is dated to the seventeenth century, one to about 1660, which puts the earliest pieces two centuries ahead of the bulk.
Where The Range Widens
Timber does most of the work. Plain oak and mahogany frames sit at the bottom of the range, while burr walnut, satinwood, macassar, kingwood, rosewood, amboyna and birds-eye maple sit near the top. Burr walnut alone accounts for 31 titles, concentrated in the Art Deco and late Victorian groups.
Completeness and width then sort the rest. A headboard alone, or a head and foot board with nothing to join them, occupies the lowest positions; titles specifying side irons, rails, a base or a mattress sit higher. Wider frames follow the same direction, with king, 5ft, 6ft, 7ft and emperor descriptions clustered in the upper part and 4ft small doubles below.
On metal beds it's ornament. A simple all-iron frame is mid-range, while porcelain and mother-of-pearl mounts, mirrored detail, gilding and ornate castings climb, and gilded solid brass half testers reach the very top of the archive. Deco beds behave similarly: Odeon, Sunray, Skyscraper, Fan Shaped and Half Circle recur like model names, and those with integral bedside cabinets lead their group.
Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for double beds between £0 and £0, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
The oldest to pass through Sellingantiques are oak four-posters dated to the 17th century, one to about 1660 and another to about 1690.
The Antique Double Beds between £0 and £0 Glossary
- Bedstead
- The frame itself, ends plus rails, without mattress or base. The word appears in 50 titles.
- Side irons
- The two members joining head and foot ends, often flagged in titles as "with side irons" because a frame without them is incomplete.
- 4ft 6"
- Standard UK double width, quoted repeatedly. A 4ft frame is described as a small double, and king or emperor covers 5ft and up.
- No end
- A metal bed with a low or minimal foot end, a phrase used constantly across the iron and brass listings.
- Dip rail
- Top rail of a metal bed that curves down at the centre. A named Victorian and Edwardian type in this archive, alongside the three hoop iron head.
- Corbeille
- French bed with basket-shaped, outward-curving ends; demi-corbeille is the half version. Several are upholstered, and parcel gilt frames recur in the same group.
- Half tester
- Canopy over the head end only, found in brass, cast iron, mahogany and burr walnut across 17 titles.
Frequently Asked Questions
What size is an antique double bed?
Titles quote 4ft, 4ft 6", 5ft and occasionally 6ft or 7ft. Standard UK double is 4ft 6", and 4ft frames are described as small doubles.
Wider frames appear too. King turns up in 30 titles, and a couple are described as emperor size. The widest recorded include a 7ft burr walnut Deco bed convertible to twins and a 7ft brass bed.
Which type turns up most often?
Brass and iron. Brass appears in 268 titles and iron in 199, with Victorian brass, Victorian cast and brass iron combinations recurring underneath.
French timber beds are the next largest group at 229 titles, walnut most often. Between them these two families cover a good deal of what's listed.
Are four-poster and half-tester beds common?
No. Half testers account for 17 titles and four-posters 16, a small minority of the archive between them.
They cover a wide span. Some oak four-posters are dated to the seventeenth century, while half testers come in brass, cast iron, mahogany and burr walnut. Gilded solid brass half testers sit at the top of the range.
What does Art Deco mean in these listings?
Art Deco appears in 99 titles, with 1930s and 1920s the busiest decades in the dated field. Walnut and maple dominate, burr walnut especially.
Dealers use shape names as if they were models: Odeon, Sunray, Skyscraper, Fan Shaped, Half Circle. Beds with integral bedside cabinets lead that group.
Do these beds come from outside Britain and France?
Yes. Irish beds account for 28 titles, and Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Breton, American, Indo-Portuguese and Hungarian ash examples each appear.
Portuguese colonial teak shows up only once or twice, as do faux bamboo, bentwood and a brass, iron and Lucite frame.
Are antique double beds sold by named makers?
Rarely as a category fact. No maker's name reaches three dealers across this evidence, so the beds are sorted by material, style and period instead.
Around 83 are listed on Sellingantiques in a year, and 95 different dealers have handled them. No single specialist controls the category.